Doug Farrar | Sportspress Northwest

Doug Farrar

A Seattle resident since 1985, Doug Farrar has written about football since 2001. In 2006, he became Football Outsiders first West Coast draft pick, which allowed him to help spread the word about sabermetrics in football, write a weekly X-and-O column called Cover-3, cover the last four scouting combines, contribute to the last five editions of the Pro Football Prospectus/Football Outsiders Almanac series, and write several pieces for ESPN.com and ESPN the magazine.

Doug moved from Coke to Pepsi in September 2009 when Yahoo! Sports invited him to add content to the Shutdown Corner blog, which covers all things NFL. Doug has also written several articles for Yahoos main NFL site, including a summer 2010 series called Under Surveillance, which examined the playbooks and play calls of every NFL team.

Football is Dougs first, but not only, sports passion. Hes also written about baseball since that long-lost era when the Mariners were a playoff contender. In the summer of 2010, he covered the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee for Yahoo. When hes not watching ridiculous amounts of game tape and consulting stat spreadsheets, you might find Doug indulging his inner Carl Spackler at one of the Eastsides finer municipal golf courses.

Could a CB be Seattle's first-round pick?

BY Doug Farrar 01:37PM 03/22/2011

According to Tony Pauline of SI.com and TFY Draft Preview, the Seahawks have Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith very high on their draft board. We hear these kinds of rumors all the time, and most of them should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, but Pauline is pretty dialed in. While other teams have removed Smith from their boards for character concerns, Pauline writes that Seattle has Smith ranked highly enough to consider taking him in the first round.READ MORE»

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Live Chat: Doug Farrar on the NFL Draft

BY Doug Farrar 11:59PM 03/21/2011

Bring your questions and discussion points for a wide-ranging draft chat with NFL writer Doug Farrar, starting at noon PST on Tuesday, March 22. We'll be talking about everything from which positions make the most sense where for the Seahawks to which draft prospects are the best overall, to which players might be more overrated ... and which players might be the best sleepers in this draft class.

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Seahawks scout elite end at Temple's Pro Day

BY Doug Farrar 12:58PM 03/18/2011

Several reports have confirmed that Seahawks defensive line coach Todd Wash, formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in his first year with Seattle, is in Philadelphia today, taking in Temple Universitys pro day. Of specific interest to Wash and the other talent evaluators there is defensive end/tackle Muhammad Wilkerson, quite possibly the most talented and coveted smaller-school player in the 2011 draft class.

Projected by most draft experts as a early-to-late second round pick, Wilkerson would fit the Seahawks very well as a complement to Red Bryant at the all-important five-technique position. Clearly, the team is looking for reinforcements behind Bryant after their run defense imploded when Bryant went down for the season with a Week 8 MCL injury.READ MORE»

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Live Chat: NFL labor and lockout

BY Doug Farrar 07:58AM 03/16/2011

Chat with Sportspress Northwest NFL Writer Doug Farrar about the league's current labor situation, and how the resolution may happen.

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2-Point Conversation: NFL lockout

BY Doug Farrar 11:46AM 03/15/2011

Art Thiel and Doug Farrar discuss the NFL's lockout, and how it relates to the distant past

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Larry Fitzgerald

BY Doug Farrar 08:29PM 03/11/2011

With this being the time of year for the combine and pro days, I was wondering if this is something you still follow. Do you watch a guy like Julio Jones, who just tore the combine up, with any interest?

Not really I don't pay much attention to the draft process and all that. I know the players when I watch them on Saturdays, but in terms of really breaking them down, I don't get to that level.

Coach Whisenhunt was obviously at Cam Newton's pro day. Quarterback is obviously a point of concern for the Cardinals going forward. I know you take a lot of responsibility for the decline in offensive production in the wake of Kurt Warner's retirement, but what was it like going from that great quarterback to a cast of many, where everyone was trying to figure it out at the same time?READ MORE»

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Seahawks Personnel Review: The linebackers

BY Doug Farrar 04:33PM 03/08/2011

In Tim Ruskells half-decade with the Seattle Seahawks, he spent more in draft value and coin on linebacker than at any other position. Ruskell reacted to the loss of Steve Hutchinson with the signing of former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson; struck early gold in his first draft with the team with Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill; and went big on Aaron Curry in his last Seattle draft. Tatupu and Hill received lucrative extensions and Curry is still trying to live up to his status as 2009s fourth-overall draft pick. Millions of dollars and a great deal of focus later, what was Pete Carroll left with when he and John Schneider took over the team in January of 2010? A still-undefined linebacker corps in which an undrafted afterthought may have been the most valuable member of the group.
David Hawthorne<

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Huskies shine at 2011 scouting combine

BY Doug Farrar 03:18PM 03/03/2011

For the first time in a very long time, several Washington Huskies players were individuals of interest at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. In the last few years, players like Isaiah Stanback and Donald Butler would have to go it alone as Washingtons talent deficit accelerated, but the upturn in Husky fortunes was reflected in the 2011 combine since quarterback Jake Locker, linebacker Mason Foster, and safety Nate Williams all participated.

Locker was obviously the marquee name from the school; thought to be a sure-fire top pick had he left school before the 2010 draft, Locker has undergone a lot of scrutiny both during and after his senior season. For every positive to his game mobility, leadership, intensity there are equal questions about his accuracy, consistency, and ability to read complex defenses.READ MORE»

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Owners, players agree to extend deadline 24 hours

BY Doug Farrar 03:04PM 03/03/2011

In a development that indicates good news for all sides, the NFL owners and players have agreed to extend negotiations 24 hours beyond the previous end of the league year, which was to be 11:59 p.m. EST Thursday .
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith made a very brief statement as he left the talks. For all of our fans who dig our game we appreciate your patience as we work through this. Were gonna keep working, and we want to play football.
Both sides had been in negotiations for many days under the eye of federal mediator George Cohen, and according to several reports, the owners began todays negotiations by putting a very favorable offer on the table an offer that apparently took the players aback and set the tone for positive discussions going forward. Most likely, the 24-hour window means that there will be further extensions and discussions as opposed to an automatic stalemate.READ MORE»

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Mebane RFA tender highlights labor issues

BY Doug Farrar 12:33PM 03/01/2011

As first reported by Danny ONeil of the Seattle Times, the Seahawks have placed the original-round restricted free agent tender on defensive tackle Brandon Mebane. Mebane, a prospective free agent, has been a star in Seattles different defensive lines since he was selected in the third round of the 2007 draft. According the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expires at the turn of the new league year on Friday, March 4, original third-round tenders are due $1.275 million in base salary that becomes guaranteed in Week 1 of the regular season.READ MORE»

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Seahawks re-sign Washington to four-year deal

BY Doug Farrar 11:17AM 03/01/2011

The Seattle Seahawks still have many holes to fill in the draft and in free agency (if there is free agency this season), but theyve locked up the man who may have been their best player in 2010 and were not talking about a new deal for Matt Hasselbeck.

Seattle reached a four-year agreement with running back/kick returner Leon Washington, according to multiple reports. Traded on April 24th, 2010, by the New York Jets for a fifth-round Seattle pick, Washington was the point man for a Seahawks special teams unit that proved to be one of the NFLs best. The deal is said to total $12.5 million, with an undisclosed guaranteed amount, and could reach $16 million with incentives.

Washington wouldnt have been on the block at all but for the horrific compound leg fracture he suffered in the 2009 season. That injury led to a metal rod in his leg and a long rehab process, but the Seahawks saw something they could work with.READ MORE»

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Seahawks like what they see in Jenkins

BY Doug Farrar 09:04AM 02/28/2011

Clemson defensive lineman Jarvis Jenkins impressed enough people at the Senior Bowl to have great momentum going into the scouting combine. Specifically, the Seattle Seahawks liked what they saw enough in Mobile to place interest in the 6-foot-4, 310-pound run-plugger. In this interview from the scouting combine, Jenkins talks about his toughest opponents, how his versatility is a plus, how to disrupt against the pass, and what the pre-draft process has been like.READ MORE»

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Video: Jake Locker on the pre-draft process

BY Doug Farrar 09:17AM 02/26/2011

With quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers hitting the three podiums, Friday is when the real media crunch starts at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium for the scouting combine. Of course, one of the bigger names on the day was Washingtons Jake Locker, who spoke at length about his previous limitations as a passer, and how hes trying to work them out by training with former New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ken O'Brien in Irvine, CA.

Locker also puts to bed any ideas about his baseball career, insisting that hes a football player first. He also talks about how he used to watch the combine in television with his dad in Ferndale. Not a bad little journey, as Locker will almost certainly be selected in the first round of the 2011 draft.READ MORE»

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Video: John Schneider on the Packer Way

BY Doug Farrar 12:28PM 02/25/2011

After his Friday podium session with the media at the scouting combine, Seahawks general manager John Schneider engaged in a slightly more informal give-and-take with the media outside the interview room.

There, Schneider talked extensively about the things he learned during his time with the current Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers during his two stints with that team. From serving as an intern in the Ron Wolf/Mike Holmgren era and rising up to become Ted Thompsons personnel analyst and director of football operations before coming to Seattle before the 2010 season to rebuild the Seahawks in conjunction with Pete Carroll.READ MORE»

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Seahawks division opponents gearing up

BY Doug Farrar 08:34PM 02/24/2011

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Seattle Seahawks have a cadre of staffers at the 2011 scouting combine; everyone from GM John Schneider to head coach Pete Carroll to a array of scouts are here, ready to put a dollar sign on the muscle, as Branch Rickey used to say. And while Schneider is expected to speak to the media on Friday, it was two of Seattles division opponents the St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers who met with the media on the first day of action.READ MORE»

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Five to watch at the scouting combine Defense

BY Doug Farrar 04:17PM 02/23/2011

Taking stock of five defensive players that the Seahawks could well be interested in on NFL Draft day.

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5 to watch at the scouting combine: The offense

BY Doug Farrar 08:06PM 02/21/2011

When the Seahawks personnel people land in Indianapolis for the NFL scouting combine this week, theyll be looking at a number of players to add to a patchwork roster at several positions. Head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider kept moving the deck chairs after inheriting several enormous holes left by the previous administration, but now, theyve got a talent base of their own making. In this two-part series, well look at 10 players five on the offensive side and five on defense who could pique the Seahawks interest prior to the NFL Draft for many different reasons.

Quarterback Christian Ponder, FloridaREAD MORE»

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Seahawks Personnel Review: The defensive line

BY Doug Farrar 09:01AM 02/19/2011

For the 2010 Seahawks, the story of the defensive line was one of a very frustrating mid-season split specifically, the Week 8 injury to the medial collateral ligament to the knee of defensive end Red Bryant. That injury took Bryant out a game in which the Seahawks were eventually gashed by a rushing attack assembled by then-Raiders head coach and new offensive line coach Tom Cable, and the timing had no coincidence about it.READ MORE»

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Stephen Schilling: From Bellevue to the big time

BY Doug Farrar 05:21PM 02/15/2011

From 2002-2005, Stephen Schilling starred at left tackle for the dominant Bellevue High football team. He hadnt played football before his high school years, but several colleges came calling soon enough, and Schilling chose the great football (and offensive line) tradition at Michigan. Currently graded by most draft experts as a second- to fourth-round pick (though many rankings change through the pre-draft process), Schilling recently spoke with Sportspress Northwest about his journey to the NFL.

You were born and raised on the Eastside?

Yep born and raised in Bellevue same house all my life.

What was it like working with head coach Butch Goncharoff at Bellevue High? And to what would you attribute the programs great success?READ MORE»

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7 things to know about the NFLs labor issues

BY Doug Farrar 06:31PM 02/14/2011

On March 4, when the new NFL league year turns over, it is most likely that the owners will lock out the players, and what could be an extended labor impasse will begin. Youll hear a great deal of rhetoric in the next few months, but here are seven major points upon which the current battle is being fought.

1. The proposed 18-game schedule is set up to be a money-grab for the owners.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the primary reason for the leagues proposal to increase the length of the regular season from 16 to 18 games is because hes heard from fans who believe the preseason is a rip-off. And while its true that asking fans to pay full price for exhibition contests isnt really fair, the real reason behind the increase in games that count has one motive: Money.READ MORE»

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